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Heatwave conditions are building over parts of Victoria and New South Wales today.
According to the Bureau of Meteorology, much of Victoria will experience heatwave conditions, with maximum temperatures in the mid to high 30s.
Continue reading...A New Zealand citizen is also ill, while a US citizen has died following a suspected mass poisoning event in the town of Vang Vieng
Melbourne teen Bianca Jones has died from methanol poisoning in a Thai hospital, a week after the Melbourne teen and her best friend fell ill while travelling in neighbouring Laos.
Anthony Albanese confirmed the 19-year-old’s death on Thursday, after her parents travelled to Thailand to be with her.
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New South Wales MPs condemned for ‘part-time’ parliamentary year
Scores of NSW MPs will earn the equivalent of more than $10,000 per sitting week in 2025 after a bid to increase the year’s 16-week calendar was rejected, AAP reports.
To do this, government MPs have to turn up to parliament and discuss matters. Voters won’t be happy that government MPs would prefer to hide in their electorate offices rather than turning up to parliament, where they face scrutiny.
Continue reading...Nineteen-year-old last seen leaving her Brunswick home in October and remains yet to be formally identified have been found in Dandenong
The final hours of missing teen Isla Bell’s life have been captured on CCTV in the Melbourne apartment building of her alleged killer, according to court documents.
The documents released by the court on Wednesday afternoon detail how the 19-year-old allegedly ended up at Marat Ganiev’s St Kilda East apartment on 7 October.
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Continue reading...About 50 firefighters and 15 fire trucks called to battle blaze at venue in Chapel Street, South Yarra
A Melbourne nightclub has been razed after a suspicious fire broke out in the middle of the night.
Lux nightclub on Chapel Street in South Yarra was engulfed in flames early on Thursday, with about 50 firefighters and 15 fire trucks called to battle the blaze.
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Continue reading...Co-chair says treaty will not outline specific changes to syllabus but is ‘more about saying this is the role that First Peoples will play’
Victoria’s First Peoples’ Assembly wants decision-making powers over how the state’s Indigenous history is taught in schools but says a treaty will not outline specific changes to the curriculum.
The assembly – the state’s democratically elected Indigenous body – will begin nation-first treaty talks with the Allan government in the coming days. A state-wide treaty – the first of its kind in Australia – will tackle problems affecting First Nations Victorians.
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Continue reading...Jacinta Allan says project will be able to power more than 51,000 homes and include 119MW solar facility and 100MW two-hour battery
The Victorian government will spend $370m to build a massive solar and battery farm able to power more than 50,000 homes, which it says will be the first state government-owned energy project since the electricity grid was privatised in the 1990s.
Jacinta Allan announced the new project in Horsham, in Victoria’s west, which is the second investment made by the government-owned State Electricity Commission.
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Oxfam reacts to Australia’s Cop29 pledge
Oxfam Australia has welcomed the government’s Cop29 pledge of $50m towards a global loss and damage fund to help the world’s most vulnerable people to repair the damage from climate breakdown.
If climate change losses and damages are not included in the new global climate finance goal, the new fund for responding to loss and damage risks becoming an empty vessel.
The danger is that developed country governments will prioritise meeting the new and ambitious climate finance goal, and will not prioritise a fund that doesn’t count towards it.
Continue reading...Parents ‘want to ensure no other family’ feels same anguish as Bianca Jones and Holly Bowles remain in Thai hospitals
The family of one of two teenagers fighting for life in hospital after a suspected methanol poisoning incident in Laos hope authorities work out exactly what happened “as soon as possible”.
Melbourne friends Bianca Jones and Holly Bowles, both aged 19, had been staying at a hostel in Vang Vieng, north of the Laos capital Vientiane, when they fell critically ill last week.
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First investment announced as part of National Reconstruction Fund
The science and industry minister, Ed Husic, was on ABC News Breakfast to discuss the government’s first investment via the National Reconstruction Fund – $40m to a Toowoomba mineral processing factory.
The difference in terms of what the [NRF] does is it provides loans, equity, and guarantees to firms that are [working across] seven priority areas to expand and grow their operations.
Given the sizes of the investments, it does take more time to be able to go through to shape up what the investment will look like, how big it’ll be, over what term, the rate of return – because the other important thing to stress to viewers is – this is not about handing out grants, and certainly not doing it on the basis of political colour-coded spreadsheets as we saw with the last government.
In fact, the social media users were less likely to have a negative attitude towards Jewish and Muslim people, irrespective of where they were on the political spectrum.
Continue reading...Former Jetstar pilot seeks to overturn conviction and sentence over killing of 73-year-old in the Wonnangatta Valley
A former Jetstar pilot who was convicted of murdering an elderly camper in Victoria’s high country has formally lodged an appeal against his conviction and sentence.
Greg Lynn, 58, was last month sentenced to a minimum of 24 years in prison for the 2020 murder of 73-year-old camper Carol Clay in the Wonnangatta Valley.
Continue reading...Firefighters battle two out-of-control blazes as other communities brace for winds, storms and possible flash flooding
Two out-of-control bushfires in Victoria have forced townships to evacuate and destroyed at least one home as parts of Australia’s east remain on alert for fires while being hit with wild winds and storms.
Firefighters were on Sunday working to contain the fires in Victoria’s west, with flash flooding and heavy rainfall possible in the state’s north-east, south-east New South Wales and north-east Tasmania.
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Warning for heavy rainfall, damaging winds and potential flash flooding in north-east Victoria
The Bureau of Meteorology has issued a severe weather warning for the north-east of Victoria, with forecasts of heavy rainfall and “damaging to locally destructive wind gusts”:
Heavy rainfall that may lead to flash flooding is forecast with areas of rain and thunderstorms for the northeast of Victoria from Sunday morning.
Six-hourly rainfall totals of 30 to 60mm are likely, with isolated totals up to 80mm possible. 24-hourly rainfall totals of 60 to 80mm are likely, with isolated falls of 100mm possible.
He’s Australia’s appointment. It says something about the importance of the United States that we have appointed a former prime minister.
That’s a sign of how seriously we take this relationship, which is a relationship between our peoples, based upon our common values.
Continue reading...Gellibrand, Dereel and Kadnook residents told to leave as total fire bans declared across parts of South Australia and Victoria
Several communities in Victoria’s west have been urged to evacuate as firefighters work to control a number of bushfires.
A short-lived heatwave has brought hot, dry and windy conditions to much of southern Australia, with total fire bans in place and some areas experiencing catastrophic fire danger.
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Continue reading...Victoria police believe building on Spencer Street was empty at the time of the blaze
Police are investigating a warehouse fire in West Melbourne which led to 150 people being evacuated from an apartment complex in the middle of the night.
Fire Rescue Victoria found the warehouse “fully involved with fire” after being called to the incident on Spencer Street early on Saturday.
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Continue reading...Man charged with assaulting police, false imprisonment, threats to kill and other offences following a carjacking and siege
A man has been charged over carjacking and a siege involving an innocent father and his toddler, who were held inside their own home for hours.
The ordeal stared on Tuesday when a police helicopter followed a car in Melbourne’s west that was believed to have been stolen in a carjacking in Snake Valley earlier in the day, Victoria police said.
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Watt says issue of reconciliation not closed in Australia despite voice referendum
Wrapping up the interview, Murray Watt was also asked about the haka performed in New Zealand parliament yesterday over a controversial bill that proposes to radically alter the way New Zealand’s treaty between Māori and the crown is interpreted.
I think there are many Australians who care very deeply about the rights of our First Peoples. Of course, Australians had their say on the voice to parliament in the recent referendum but I don’t think that means the issue of reconciliation is closed in Australia. That is something that our government remains committed to working on with our First Peoples and I think a lot of Australians support that as well.
I probably won’t comment on what’s happening in New Zealand because it’s their own affairs, but it shows these issues still really matter to people.
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Could Donald Trump really fire Kevin Rudd?
The former prime minister’s criticism of Donald Trump has drawn the ire of those in the president elect’s inner circle, and prompted renewed debate about whether the incoming administration could seek retribution.
I’d be very much opposed to that.
You’ve got the world’s richest man, and you’ve given him this position of incredible influence in the American government. I think jobs for mates is a very bad idea. I don’t think that politicians should be putting their friends, their dear friends into positions of great influence in this country.
Continue reading...Libraries, Tafes and hospitals among first 30 locations to have period product dispensers installed in Victorian government initiative
Vending machines offering free pads and tampons will begin operating at the State Library of Victoria, Melbourne Museum and the Royal Exhibition Building, as well as hospitals, libraries and Tafes, as part of an Australian-first government initiative aimed at ending period poverty.
The Victorian premier, Jacinta Allan, will on Thursday announce the first 30 locations where 50 vending machines will be installed as part of the pilot program, which also includes the Melbourne Immigration Museum, three Northern Health campuses, the Royal Women’s hospital in Parkville and the Sidney Myer Music Bowl.
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The treasurer, Jim Chalmers will today announce funding of $900m for states and territories through a new national productivity fund to boost competition and productivity across the economy.
Launching the plan in a speech to the Australian Business Economists in Sydney, Chalmers is hoping the plan will will incentivise states to achieve productivity gains through pro-competitive policies such as streamlining commercial planning and zoning, and removing barriers to the uptake of modern construction methods.
In March this year, on behalf of the Council on Federal Financial Relations, I asked the Productivity Commission to model the potential impacts of a revitalised NCP.
Its final report landed this month and the benefits on offer are substantial, if not staggering. The PC found a revitalised NCP could boost GDP by up to $45bn a year and reduce prices by 1.45 percentage points. That GDP boost represents about $5,000 per household, per year.
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